Hoshino Resorts Karuizawa Hotel Bleston Court (Hoshino, Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture) is hosting the "Karuizawa Sweets Collection 2017 Summer" event through September 15th, featuring a course-style dessert called "Menu Dessert," as well as afternoon tea and gateaux made with seasonal ingredients. From August 19th to September 15th, "Menu Dessert Late Summer" (¥3,500, tax and service charge not included) will be available, featuring a three-course dessert menu that embodies late summer. The first item in "Menu Dessert Late Summer" is "A Stroll in the Garden," a basket filled with glass desserts and madeleines. This picnic-style dish includes three glass desserts: seasonal peach soup, elderflower blancmange, and ground cherry jelly with a tart accent, along with two madeleines, flavored with mulberry leaves and miso.

The second main dessert is "End of Summer," made with blackberries, raspberries, and red currants. Three small choux pastries are topped with raspberry cream and sauce, with blackberry and raspberry ice cream hidden inside. The ice cream, decorated with raspberry cream and red currant tuile, has a subtle coffee aroma. The main dessert is the only part of the course that can be ordered individually (tax and service charge not included/1,200 yen), which is a nice change of pace.

The third dish is "Gift from the Forest," a mignardise (small pastry) inspired by the forest as summer turns to autumn. The financiers and tuiles, made with blueberries and green lemons, are all miniature and so delicate that you'll almost regret eating them.

Other options include three kinds of "gateaux (mousses)" made with blueberries, apricots, red currants and raspberries (600 yen each / 1,200 yen with a drink set), as well as an "afternoon tea" (3,500 yen, excluding July 22nd to August 18th) which includes sweets such as blueberry tarts, small pastries and mousses, and eclair salés filled with sausage and Shinshu salmon, all served with a drink (all prices excluding tax and service charge).